IL Syracuse Mets

Syracuse Drops High-Scoring Friday Night Affair to Louisville, 15-8

May 26, 2023 - International League (IL)
Syracuse Mets News Release


Syracuse Mets' Branden Fryman at bat
Syracuse Mets' Branden Fryman at bat
(Syracuse Mets, Credit: Herm Card)

Syracuse, NY - The Syracuse Mets plated plenty of runs on Friday night but were bested by a loaded Louisville Bats (Triple-A Cincinnati Reds) lineup as Syracuse fell, 15-8, to Louisville on a sunny Friday night at NBT Bank Stadium. The Bats have now taken the first four games in the week-long, six-game series.

Louisville (25-23) plated a run in the top of the second inning when Matt Reynolds singled to start the frame and then scored on a TJ Hopkins RBI double for a 1-0 lead.

Syracuse (19-30) wouldn't take that lying down. The Mets scored three times in the bottom of the second inning to take a 3-1 lead. After a flyout to start the inning, Lorenzo Cedrola singled to put a runner on base with one out. The speedy Cedrola then pranced all the way home on an RBI double from Carlos Cortes, his third double of the week, knotting the game, 1-1. After a Nick Meyer groundout, Branden Fryman pounded a two-run home run over the left-field wall to surge the Mets to a 3-1 lead. It was the first career Triple-A homer for Fryman.

From there, the scoring onslaught began for the Bats. Louisville scored in each of the next four innings, scoring ten runs from the third through sixth innings to take a commanding 11-3 lead. In the third, they sent nine men to the plate while scoring four times. In the fourth, they scored two more times on an Elly De La Cruz two-run homer. In the fifth, Alejo Lopez went deep to tack on another run via a solo home run. Finally, the Bats sent nine more men to the plate in the sixth to score three more runs on four hits. By the seventh inning, the Bats had already scored 11 runs on the night via 13 hits.

In the seventh and eighth, staring down an 11-3 deficit, the Mets mounted a rally. Syracuse scored twice in both innings to slim the deficit to 11-7 entering the top of the ninth. In the seventh, Jaylin Davis hit a two-run home run to extend his hitting streak to ten games. In the eighth, Luis Guillorme added an RBI double as part of the pair of runs that crossed home plate. Guillorme reached base four times in the game with two hits plus a walk and a hit by a pitch.

In the ninth, Louisville pulled away with four runs via some prodigious power. Leading off the inning, De La Cruz and Christian Encarnacion-Strand both launched back-to-back home runs to score two runs in the blink of an eye for a 13-7 advantage. De La Cruz, widely considered one of the top prospects in all of baseball, has hit three home runs combined in the last two games. Encarnacion-Strand has now homered twice this week and finished Friday night's game with a double, a home run, two walks and three runs scored. Later in the ninth, the Bats added on via RBIs from TJ Hopkins and Michael Siani for a 15-7 lead. Hopkins was brilliant in Friday night's game, going 4-for-6 with three singles, a double and five runs driven in.

By the end of the ballgame, Louisville had every single batter reached base at least once while seven of their batters reached base at least three times. The Bats have scored 45 combined runs in the first four games of the series on 59 hits.

In the bottom of the ninth, Syracuse scored its final run on a two-out, RBI single from Nick Meyer to make it a 15-8 ballgame. The Mets offense was no slouch of its own on Friday night, scoring eight runs on 13 hits. Each of Syracuse's nine starters also reached base at least once in the game and eight of the nine batters had at least one hit. However, the Mets left ten more runners on base in the loss. Syracuse has left 31 runners on base in the first four games of the series.

Syracuse is home all week at NBT Bank Stadium, taking on the Louisville Bats. Game five of the six-game series is set for a 6:35 p.m. first pitch on Saturday night. Left-hander David Peterson is slated to start on the mound for the Mets, opposed by right-hander Brett Kennedy for the Bats.

Check out the Syracuse Mets Statistics




Images from this story

Syracuse Mets' Branden Fryman at bat
Syracuse Mets' Branden Fryman at bat
(Herm Card)		   



International League Stories from May 26, 2023


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central